1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a slide fastener with a separator attached thereto and more particularly to improvement of a so-called separable slide fastener of the type including a pair of fastener stringers, a pair of male and female members in the form of a rod fixedly secured to the lower end part of each of said fastener stringers and a box to which the lower part of the female member is fixed, said male and female members and said box constituting the separator.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A separator of the prior type used for separable slide fasteners is generally constructed by two components, one of them being an assembly of a female member and a box both of which are integrally connected to one another and the other one being a male member. However, it has been pointed out with respect to the conventional separator that a problem arises when both the male member and the assembly of female member and the box are fixedly secured to the lower end part of each of the pair of fastener stringers with a coupling element in the form of a coil secured to each of the inside edges of a fastener tape. Specifically, in a case where an assembly of female member and box is fixedly secured to the lower end part of one of the fastener stringers and a male member is fixedly secured to the lower end part of the other one prior to slidably fitting a slider onto the fastener stringer, it is impossible to automatically fit the slider onto the fastener stringer due to the existence of the box. On the other hand, in a case where the slider is slidably fitted onto the fastener stringer prior to fixing the assembly of female element and box to the lower end part of one of the fastener stringers and fixing the male member to the lower end part of the other one, there is a tendency to cause such malfunction as entanglement of slider with coupling elements, occurance of damage or injury on coupling element or the like because no guiding means is provided with the fastener stringers.
To assure that a number of slide fasteners are automatically manufactured without any intermittence in a mass production line there has already been proposed a method essentially comprising the steps of preparing a female member and a box separately, fixing the male member to the lower end part of one of the fastener stringers, fixing the female member to the lower end part of the other one, slidably fitting a slider onto the pair of fastener stringers while the latter are coupled to one another and finally fixedly securing the box to the female member. One example of the above-proposed method of attaching a separator to a pair of fastener stringers is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent No. 69746/78. However, no separator has been technically developed which is suitably employable for practicing the prior method as disclosed above.